Someone, somewhere in the organization has adopted a confrontational attitude towards new Irish arrivals that has been perpetuated over several years.

It is a clear case of bureaucratic and over-legalistic thinking overcoming the instinctive mission of these immigrant centers to help the emigrants first and foremost.

Wallowing in regulations and observing red tape is a common failure in organizations that fail to keep their mission statement front and center and regularly inform their workers of it.

All the Irish centers should take note of the massive overreach in the Boston case where the immigrant was singled out from a newspaper article and warned in a very harsh manner she had to leave the country.

Unfortunately, many instances of young Irish being treated in a hostile and bullying manner by the IIIC in the visa processing area have since surfaced.

This young girl was not an isolated case in other words and clearly the organization, which undoubtedly does good work in many areas, has forgotten what its primary mission is -- to help the Irish in the U.S.

Many young immigrants find U.S. visa regulations very difficult to deal with, complex, opaque and tough to navigate.

The J-1 graduate visa, which lasts for one year, is a complex and flawed program where the new arrival can often be in need of advice to navigate its many clauses.

Such advice is the bedrock of the many Irish immigrant centers and the vast majority do it very well, with the care and the welfare of the emigrant in mind.

The Boston experience should serve as a salutary lesson to all who deal with recent Irish arrivals about how important it is to get the outreach correct, to explain the laws but never to become an enforcement arm over a trivial matter. That is a bridge way too far as was evident in this case.